its my understanding that the US has banned Chinese EVs based on their “ability to send telemetry back to China” (fwiw, every manufacturer is doing something similar, but that’s out of scope for this question).
Waymo has a new class of car they’re using called the Ojai (Oh, hi) that is built by Zeeker, a Chinese company, that is built in China. This seems like it would run afoul of that ban.
I thought I heard somewhere that the car is built in China, but the infotainment system and ecu are then installed here in America, which bypasses that issue. If that’s the case. Why don’t other manufacturers import Chinese EVs and drop in their own infotainment systems for much cheaper?
Edit: it’d be nice to have answers grounded with proof, not just “because bribes! and the oligarchy!”
American cars are built to be expensive so they can make money on financing and repairs. Mechanics are quitting dealerships in droves because they are getting paid peanuts to make repairs that shouldn’t have to be made in ways that are way more convoluted than they need to be.
The American car industry has also been pushing into bigger, heavier cars, where the profit margins are, and they are going to be absolutely creamed by higher MPG competition as gas prices rice.
But, sure, it’s all about unfair Chinese subsisidies. Keep telling yourself that.
Two things can be true at the same time. We’re both right.
Yup. We sure can… but there’s a fine line between protecting sclerotic industries and protecting American workers, and I frankly don’t trust this President to even care about the difference. His administration seems to be driven by “beating China” with the simple-minded fervor of a cat at feeding time.
Biden put the Chinese vehicle tariff in place. And it’s almost entirely about protecting the companies. Protecting the jobs is more a side effect, I expect.
Yup. It looks like Biden upped the tarrif on Chinese EVs from 25% to 100%.
Trump’s anti-Chinese bias isn’t unique to him; it’s been part of the policy establishment for a while. China is obviously coming to replace the United States as the Top Dog and a lot of policy makers do not like it.